The animated choice this time is The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature which is good silly fun, as you would expect. But the live action option has to be Once Upon a Time, the Chinese epic fantasy about love across the incarnations and across time. It looks like the live action version of Tokyo Ghoul is being released as well, but not in this country.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is the epic fantasy option in Western film releases this week, and I didn’t find anything genre-like in Anime. This might be a good weekend to start watching something new on a streaming service; I think I’ll begin Restaurant to Another World.
The latest track from The Oral Cigarettes is Black Memory, which was posted on line yesterday and already has 185,000 views. If they sound familiar perhaps you know their song Kyouran Hey Kids!!, which is the opening theme to the first season of the series Noragami Aragoto. Its a story abut a minor god determined to make it big who isn’t having a lot of luck getting a shrine started or finding followers. Or perhaps you are currently watching Sagrada Reset, where they do one of the closing themes. They will also be doing the theme for the upcoming live action version of Ajin – Demi-Human, hitting theaters on the final weekend of September, and that is what Black Memory is.
The short answer is Steven King’s The Dark Tower is the one genre film this week, and I won’t be in the audience.
It didn’t come anywhere near me in its limited theatrical run, so Colossal has to be at the top of my personal list this week. It looks amazing in the trailer, and the premise is not one I have ever heard of, so I have to see it. Also this week The Circle is technology twisted to destroy privacy and bring Big Brother to life in ways that would have scared Orwell back to his farm. Even though it isn’t genre, I also have to mention Going In Style because it is too funny for words. I am not sure how it happened, but if there was any Anime being released this week it slipped right past me.
Maison Book Girl is an art rock band who released their second single on July 19th, but a Japanese single is like a US EP, having 3 to 5 tracks on it. The first song here is the first track on that new single, Rooms. The second song is the second track from their first single, Sin Morning, and that one has English subtitles for those wondering what they are singing about. Their first single actually has 11 tracks on it, so I am throwing in the 5th one as well, Faithlessness. Their live concerts are right up there with METAFIVE for being visually complex as well as musically so, but sadly their record companies attempts at live show production quality do not end up with a product you can actually enjoy watching.